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THE lunch yesterday at which legendary CBS news chief and current Sony America Chairman Howard Stringer was honored by the Center for Communication was like any other gathering in the city – no one was talking about anything except the hung election.

The heaviest hitters in the media were there, but just like “ordinary people,” they were enthralled by the seesaw “result” and the role we played in it. “There’s more than enough egg for all our faces,” one network honcho said.

I put it to honoree Sir Howard, who is surely the best-loved and most-respected TV newsman since his mentor, Frank Stanton: “Would the debacle over the Florida call have happened on your watch at the network?”

“No,” Stringer said. “Not because I was any kind of genius, but because in those days, we all had our own ‘experts’ and didn’t have to take the projections of just one company. We were sometimes wrong, but you never had to accept the verdict from a single source. It’s all economics – it’s cheaper to do it this way, but it may not be the best way.”